Practice•Space

Practice•Space

Practice•Space

Practice·Space fuses entrepreneurship and architecture to to shape a business, its space, and its story.

Emerging Practice in Detroit

In a rapidly changing world with an uncertain economy, Detroit presents an opportunity to do things differently. A major city, charged with history, high on culture, and stocked with an abundance of vacant space, there’s a growing group of creatives, activists, and entrepreneurs reclaiming Detroit’s rich urban landscape, injecting old spaces with new ideas.

Where there is potential, there are also problems. Old buildings are stunning and full of character, but are also complicated and full of surprises. Space is cheap, but property is tied up, city government is gridlocked, and banks aren’t lending money. Professional firms are not calibrated to do work at this scale. In fact, the whole system needs to be re-written for this type of development.

Enter Practice·Space. Practice·Space brings together entrepreneurs, creatives, and the local community to shape a business, its space, and its story. Practice·Space consists of three parts:

1) Workspace—a homebase for a new generation of practitioners to share resources and build a body of local knowledge. 2) Incubator—a revolving 4-month program where Detroit-based business projects get a chance to build a foundation for growth.3) Residency—a year-long vocational training where a team of innovators explore new ways of working and broaden their experience collaborating on real projects.

The Workspace is a platform for gathering and energizing the rebuilders of Detroit. The program (Incubator + Residency) connects Detroit’s entrepreneurs with a team of creatives to cultivate emerging businesses and grow a new community of practitioners. Practice Space creates the framework for these diverse connections.

What can we offer Escapees?

Typical pathways can leave us checking our dreams at the door and replacing idealism with complacency. There are other paths. Practice·Space is a one-year residency program where a paid tuition provides the opportunity to dig into ground breaking Detroit-based development projects, supported by a group of experts and advisors, and an innovative design methodology. Rather than be siloed, Residents deepen their existing skills while expanding into new capacities within architecture, business, and storytelling.

Paying to participate runs counter to the conventional approach but creates a new model: you gain a raw introduction to entrepreneurship and emerging practices in Detroit through connections to meaningful projects, starting with limited resources but deeply woven into the fabric of the community. Residents are invested in roles with actual stakes, on projects with the autonomy to chart their own course.